Nils Hjalmar Odhner

Nils Hjalmar Odhner (December 6, 1884 in Stockholm, † 12 June 1973) was a Swedish malacologist. He is regarded as the "Great Old Man " of the Swedish mollusc research.

Life

Nils Hjalmar Odhner was born as the son of manufacturer Hjalmar Odhner and his wife Eva nee Mannerström. He grew up in Stockholm, where he attended school, graduating in 1903 with the Abitur. He then studied zoology at Zootomischen Institute, Stockholm University. His studies he completed promptly; In 1908 he was already a candidate Phil, 1910 Phil licentiate and 1912 he became the Dr. phil. PhD and already received the teaching certificate. In the thesis he dealt with the morphology of the Nephridialsystem the mussels and its significance for the phylogeny. But this was not his first scientific paper. Already in 1907 while still a student he had published his first scientific paper on opisthobranch and pteropods. As early as 1904 he was given the opportunity to do research at Naturhistoriska riksmuseet perform in Stockholm. In 1915, he received a job there as a museum assistant. In 1946 he was appointed Professor and Head of the Invertebrates Department. Soon after, he was also chief of the entire museum. In 1949 he retired but continued to work in a museum and was able to do active research as a pensioner on. He was a member of several scientific societies, such as the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the physio Graphic Society Lund, the German Malacological Society and the Malacological Society of London.

Research interests

In 1906 he accompanied Professor Hamberg on his expedition to Lapland and land snails collected there. He published in 1908 in an expedition volumes the results. In the following years he worked on the Arctic marine molluscs, the subfossil molluscs Scandinavia and especially the recent land and freshwater molluscs of Scandinavia. In the area of ​​mussel family of fingernail clams ( Sphaeriidae ) and the snail family amber snails ( Succineidae ) he conducted basic research and was considered the world's leading expert. Later he turned more and more to the molluscs other oceans and continents. He also expanded his field of research within the molluscs, which was previously restricted to snails and mussels, on the Wurmmollusken that Kahnfüßer, the chitons and cephalopods. A few work also led him into the field of paleontology and geology. In the course of his long life as a researcher, he has published over 100 in some cases very extensive professional publications. Overall, he suggested more than 400 new scientific taxa, ranging from the class to the variety. The name of the class Account Administrator he he proposed within the tribe molluscs in a letter to William Wenz before, which then published it with its author's name in 1940. A number of mollusc species have been named after him (eg Archi Doris odhneri ( MacFarland, 1966), Dicata odhneri Schmekel, 1967). The genus Odhneria and various kinds of flukes, however, are named after Theodor Odhner.

Works (selection)

• Nils Hjalmar Odhner: Northern and arctic invertebrates in the collection of the Swedish State Museum ( Riksmuseum ). III. Opisthobranchia and Pteropoda. In: Kunliga Svenska Vetenskap academies handlingar, 41 (4). Stockholm, 1907, pp. 1-116.
• Mollusks of the Lapland mountains. In: Naturw. Unters. Sarekgeb. , 4 ( 2). Stockholm 1908, pp. 133-168.
• Morphological and phylogenetic studies on the nephridia of Lamellibranchien. In: Z. wiss Zool, 100 ( 2).. Berlin 1912, pp. 287-391.
• The Molluskenfaun of takers. In: Sjön Tàkerns Fauna Flora oh, 8, Stockholm 1929, pp. 1-129.
• Contributions to Malakozoologie of the Canary Islands. Lamellibranchien, cephalopods, gastropods. In: Ark. Zool. , 23A (14 ), Stockholm 1931, pp. 1-116.